Have you ever listened to the talk shows of Sandeep Maheshwari or Abhineet Mishra? Or you must have listened to multiple Ted Talks? How did you feel? Does it make you believe them completely? Do you get convinced? Do you feel like if you could also influence others and make them believe your ideologies or point of views? If you also want to be an influencer, then you should surely need to know a bit about persuasive speech. 

The purpose of the persuasive speech is to persuade the audiences or in other words, it is all about informing them or educating them by imposing your ideas and believes in a very subtle way. Thus, it can be also considered as a mode of convincing them or even motivating them. 

Though the term persuasive speech is a newbie in our word dictionaries, if we go back into Indian History, we will able to figure out that the concept is not a new one. Even during the times of emperors, various intellectuals used to take sessions and even the concept of preaching can also be considered as a type of persuasive speech. In fact, we face persuasion in our daily life as well. It is just that the formal session of persuasive speech is a newly emerged concept. But before divulging into persuasive speech, one needs to keep a few things in mind.  This piece is just an attempt to make you a better persuasive speaker.

Things to be considered before choosing the topic: In order to speak about something or to impose an ideology or opinion of yours on other, it is important to have a very strong knowledge base about that topic. You need to have a crystal-clear opinion about the topic. But any random topic can’t be the theme of the persuasive speech. It needs to be thought provoking for the audiences and if they counter your opinion, then you should have a strong argument as well. Thus before the session, it is very important you know both the pros and cons of the given topic.  

Where can you find the topic:  Always keep your eye open. Day to day activities, current affairs coming up in the news or various trending posts on multiple social media platform can be the source of the topic.  

Familiarity makes it more convenient: More familiar you are with the topic, easier it becomes to talk and convince about it. For that, it is important to identify the area of your interest. Due to the internet, it is not impossible to talk about any topic as there are abundant materials available to study and understand the topic. But once you focus on your area of interest, research works become fun and easy. Then the enthusiasm with which you have done the work reflects on your speech.

Identify the audience: Choose your audience as per your area of interests. Though the chances are less but if by any means in the course of your speech you get a small hint that the audiences are losing their interest and becoming less attentive, then try to connect to them by identifying their area of interest. It may happen that their interests may not be completely aligned with yours. But to make them convinced with your opinions it is important you understand their opinion as well so that you can manipulate theirs accordingly. 

Emotions motivate the masses: Try to identify and tap the emotional quotient of the audiences. Emotions always help to connect. It is easier to persuade if the topic grabs the emotions of them. Thus, give an emotional angle to your talk.

Don’t go beyond a certain limit:  It is very important to understand where to draw the line. Don’t keep on repeating the same point or don’t go for a topic which is done and dusted. Topics which have already been taken care of previously can’t grab audience attention for long as they are already familiar with it. Moreover, don’t choose a topic which may be cliché. It is always good to go for an off the track topic. 

The audience should relate to your topic: Once you have identified the audience, it is important to figure out what will affect them or the community they belong to or something that will help them relate to their idea of nationality. Depending upon the geographical locations of the audiences the topic should vary else they won’t be able to relate to it. 

Don’t preach just describe: Using a more descriptive form of narration helps to reach out to audience faster. More descriptive it is easier for the audience to visualise and thus easier to becomes to persuade them. If the topics don't give you the flexibility to use a lot of descriptive languages, then add as much new facts and information as possible that will surprise the audience and use a lot of graphics in that case. Just stating facts and figures won't help much. 

Feedback is important: Always take feedback from your audience. Doesn't matter it is positive feedback or a negative one or a mixture of both. But implement their views and feedback to refine your topic selection and talk presentation for the future. 

Some ideas that can grab attention:  Though any trending topics can be the theme of your speech. But to grab greater attention of the audiences, we came up with a list of themes that may appeal to them at any point of time. 

These themes and ideas may range from:

• Human Rights 
• Religion 
• Movies and nationality 
• World peace
• Environment and its degradation 
• Local, national or international politics 
• Human emotions and behaviour 
• Technology and human life 
  

Thus, in a nutshell, we may conclude that it is important as a speaker that you try to address some complex challenges and become an influencer for masses without hurting their sentiments or beliefs or values. There should be reasoned arguments, but the audience should not feel being dominated.